Prince Freya (Volume 1) by Keiko Ishihara (Review)

Title: Prince Freya (Volume 1)
Creator: Keiko Ishihara
Type: Fiction, Sequential Art, Manga
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Date published: April 7, 2020

A digital copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

To save her kingdom, a simple village girl must live a royal lie.

The powerful kingdom of Sigurd has slowly been conquering all the lands that share its borders, and now it has turned its voracious attention to the small, resource-rich Tyr. Tyr cannot hope to match Sigurd in strength, so in order to survive, it must rely on the intelligence, skill and cunning of its prince and his loyal knights. But should their prince fall, so too shall Tyr…

Freya thinks of herself as a simple village girl, but her idyllic life is shattered when she is caught up in the aftermath of a treacherous Sigurdian plot. She bears a striking resemblance to her country’s beloved Prince Edvard, who lays dying from poison. Without its ruler, all of Tyr will quickly be engulfed by Sigurdian violence. Now Freya must take Prince Edvard’s place and lead his valiant knights in defending the realm!

⤖ Prince Freya Review ⬻

I was drawn to the Prince Freya manga because of the synopsis (I was excited about a young woman taking the place of a prince…and I was getting major Joan of Arc and strong female vibes) and I really liked the artist’s style as well. The plot didn’t go quite how I’d expected, and I was disappointed to find how weak and submissive the female lead is. Mind you, this does leave room for character development. But at the same time, I don’t feel a very strong urge to pick up the next volumes to see if that’s the case.

I am curious to see where the story will go, so I may continue reading this manga series or I might not. I also wanted to say that the art within the interior of this manga was just as pretty as on the cover, and that was my favourite part of the manga, followed by my love for the effeminate prince that the female lead ends up replacing.